Introduction
Many a scholar or traveller in the past described sri lanka
as »the Pearl of the Indian ocean« for its scenic beauty and
nature’s gifts, the golden beaches, the cultural riches and
the mild weather. on that fateful day of 26 december 2004,
within a matter of two hours, this resplendent island was
reduced to a »tear drop in the Indian ocean.« The Indian
ocean tsunami waves following the great earthquake off
the coast of sumatra in the republic of Indonesia swept
through most of the maritime provinces of sri lanka,
causing unprecedented damage to life and property.
There was no sri lankan who did not have a friend or
relation affected by this catastrophe. It also brought about a
new dimension in the hearts of the people of a nation that
has seen over two decades of internal conflict based on
ethnic issues. a national spirit arose amongst the people so
that they shed their differences, whether they be based on
cast, creed, religion, race or politics, to help fellow beings.
even though sri lankans had not experienced or heard of
any disasters of such magnitude, they avoided starvation
and epidemics amongst the refugees by getting over the
initial shock very quickly and rushing to the rescue of the
suffering countrymen. The first load of relief items such
as food, drinking water, clothing and dry rations reached
the devastated areas within the first twenty-four hours.
In some areas, the existence of extended family links,
so much a part of the sri lankan way of life, was used
to house the displaced. This initial public reaction was
quickly supported by the government and the international
community who felt strongly about what they witnessed
in the electronic media. The professional institutes in sri
lanka rallied round to provide their services in an honor-
ary capacity. doctors and medical students volunteered
to run makeshift health camps. The Institute of architects
and the Institute of engineers declared that their members
would provide the necessary services at no cost to help in
the development of social, physical and environmental
infrastructure facilities.
Natural disasters before 26 December 2004
sri lanka has had its share of natural disasters over the
years. limited to localised areas, they were the result of
Pali Wijeratne
Post-Tsunami Redevelopment and the Cultural Sites of the Maritime
Provinces in Sri Lanka
floods due to heavy monsoon rains, earth slips and land-
slides and occasional gale force winds caused by depres-
sions and cyclonic effects in either the Bay of Bengal or
the arabian sea. sri lanka is not located in the accepted
seismic region and hence the affects of earthquakes or
tsunamis are unknown to the people. The word ›tsunami‹
was not in the vocabulary of the majority of sri lankans
until disaster struck on that fateful day.
The great historical chronicle »Mahavamsa« describes
the history of sri lanka from the 5th c. B. C. This chronicle
reports an incident in the 2nd c. B. C. when »the sea-gods
made the sea overflow the land« in the early kingdom of
Kelaniya, north of Colombo. It is to be noted that, by acci-
dent or otherwise, after this incident the western coast of
sri lanka was not popular up to around the 12th c. when
Colombo developed as a transshipment port to link the
west to the east for trading purposes.
The records show that there have been many tsunamis
in the Indian ocean over the years. But none of them has
had any significant effect on sri lanka. The 1883 and the
1941 tsunamis affected sri lanka but the highest waves
were not more than one metre. There appear to have been
no casualties in 1883 and only one in 1941, in arugam Bay
on the eastern coast.The Tsunami on 26 December and its effects
in Sri LankaThe tsunami on 26 december was brought on by a mas-
sive undersea earthquake off the coast of sumatra in the
republic of Indonesia, which was of a magnitude of 9. 3
on the richter scale and was caused by tectonic activity
resulting in the sudden faulting of a part of the contact
zone between the Indian and Burma Plates. although
the epicentre of the quake was described as just off the
northern coast of sumatra, it was a rupture along a 1200
km fault line, in which a section of the Indian Plate slipped
around 15 m below the Burma Plate at a depth of between
1 km and 5 km below the surface of the sea, that caused
most of the damage. The origins of the quake are thought
to be at a depth of 30 km below the seabed. The tsunami
waves that resulted from this seismic activity affected
not just the eastern part of the Indian ocean but several
other countries spreading beyond the arabian sea. The